About the GEU

The GEU is the trade organisation of publishers that develop and supply learning materials, tests and educational services to primary education, secondary education, senior secondary vocational education and higher secondary vocational education (Universities of Applied Science). The GEU members account for 95% of the market in primary and secondary education and across all sectors the members provide daily support to 3 million students and over 250,000 teachers at 8,000 schools in their learning process.

The GEU assists in creating proper preconditions, in consultation, for the effective use of digital learning materials. This includes agreements aimed at standardisation, joint technical provisions and the lowering of thresholds for schools (e.g. a fixed VAT rate for all learning materials). The GEU is also working on the formation and improvement of future-proof guarantees aimed at protecting the interests of schools, students and developers of teaching materials, e.g. in the field of privacy and copyright.

Knowledge development and innovation are given attention within the GEU in more ways than one. First of all, the GEU, in collaboration with the Mediafederatie Academy organises workshops and seminars for its members on a variety of subjects. In addition, the GEU increasingly seeks cooperation with research institutions.

In all these activities, the GEU not only focuses on parties in education, but also on other policy-makers, at a national level and increasingly so at an international level through the FEP and IPA. The innovative reputation of Dutch educational publishers internationally can promote developments within Europe.

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Report on Innovating Education

The GEU encourages and facilitates collaboration between the publishers and parties involved in education in order to support schools in the innovation process and the use of learning materials. In our report, Innovating Education: let’s get to work together we put forward our view on co-creating this innovation.

The GEU notices a momentum for using the opportunities of digital learning materials at schools. During the past few years, a lot of schools developed or tightened their vision on more modern education. Despite large differences, we can see a trend of schools wanting to personalise their education to a greater extent and wanting to use the possibilities offered by ICT. According to the GEU, now is the time to implement the revamped visions of schools across the board.

For decades now, providers of learning materials, tests and educational services affiliated with the GEU have been playing a role in enabling schools to teach students what they want. The changes in the educational sector of the past few years have resulted in major investments in the development of digital learning materials and support services. This report sets out some of that development on the basis of examples of products currently being provided by our members. Not only have the products and services of publishers changed, so has their role. We have noticed that schools increasingly regard them as enablers of educational innovation.

For a wider use, we have to make sure that teaching materials at schools are properly embedded in an educational vision, a team of teachers who are proficient in digital didactics and a technical infrastructure that makes it possible to use the learning material smoothly and safely. To that end, it is important to invest in the collaboration between schools and publishers. The GEU wants to support this by reinforcing the collaboration with educational parties with the same ambitions.

A single report will not revamp the educational sector, of course. Doing the right thing in class will. We hope this report will prompt you into helping the GEU and educational publishers to experience the development we all want. As such, it’s a joint effort for education.